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Sprouting capability of 17 tropical tree species after overstory removal in Quintana Roo, Mexico
Forest Ecology and Management 126 (2000) 399±403
Sprouting capability of 17 tropical tree species after overstory removal in Quintana Roo, Mexico Patricia Negreros-Castillo, Richard B. Hall* Department of Forestry, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA Accepted 22 February 1999
Abstract While carrying out an overstory removal/natural regeneration study, the number of sprouts from the trees that were cut down were recorded. Seventeen species with average diameters from 9 to 36 cm were studied. The number of sprouts varied from 1 to 6, and sprout heights from 1.0 m to 5 m, 3 years after the original trees were cut. Overall, the number of sprouts and the height of the sprouts increased as the parent tree diameter increased. This information can be very useful in managing the forest for products other than timber. Firewood, medicinal plants, construction materials, edible fruits, and forages are among the different uses of the observed species. Speci®c stands might be coppiced to satisfy some of the most immediate needs of the region's inhabitants. # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Tropical forests; Tree sprouting; Coppice management; Quintana Roo; Mexico
1. Introduction Tropical forests are of great value to tropical inhabitants in particular, and in general to the world society. The role of these forests are currently better known and understood than are the management techniques needed to sustain them. Tropical forests are habitat for the highest diversity of plants and animals in the world, carbon sinks, and sources of valuable timber, resins and latex, medicine materials, etc. (Tracey, 1983). Although, the study of tropical forests has advanced in recent years, not enough is *Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-515-294-1453; fax: +1-515294-2995. E-mail address: [email protected] (D.A. Yaussy).
known about tropical forests to foster sustainable management. Thus, there are still many questions to investigate. Because research funding is often scarce, it is very useful, when possible, to gather additional ®eld information while carrying out studies that have other primary objectives. Sprouts from stumps are an important element for the natural vegetative regeneration of tropical and temperate forests (Johnson, 1977; Khan and Tripathi, 1986a, b; Putz and Brokaw, 1989; Thompson et al., 1998). However, very little is known about the sprouting capability of tropical forest species in many parts of the world. In an overstory removal/natural regeneration study in Quintana Roo (Negreros-Castillo and Mize, 1993), many trees of a variety of species (Table 1) were cut
0378-1127/00/$ ± see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 3 7 8 - 1 1 2 7 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 0 9 - 7
400
P. Negreros-Castillo, R.B. Hall / Forest Ecology and Management 126 (2000) 399±403
Table 1 List of tree species studied with Latin names and most important uses Family
Scientific Namea
Local name
Usesb
Anacardiaceae Annonaceae Burceraceae Ebenaceae Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae Hyppocrataceae Lauraceae Moraceae Myrtaceae Polygonaceae Polygonaceae Sapindaceae
Metopium brownei Jacq. Urban. Malmea depressa (Baillon) R.E.F. Protium copal Engl. Diospyros verae-crucis Standl. Croton reeflexiofolius H.B.K. Gymnanthes Lucida Sw. Yaiti Hippocratea celastroides B.B.K. Nectandra coriaceae (Blake). C.K. Brosimun alicastrum Sw. Ramon blanco Psidium sartorianum Berg. Coccoloba sp Coccoloba spicata Lundell. Boobchich Talisia floresii Standl.
Chechen Elemuy Copal Blanco Silil Perez Cutz
Chrysophyllum mexicanum Brand. Manilkara zapota l. (L.) V. Royen Pouteria campechiana H.B.K. Pouteria unilocularis (Donn. and S.M.)
Caimitillo Chicozapote Kanixte Zapotillo
lumber, turning stock hatchet handlesc tool handle, posts no published use for the wood rural construction, medicinec rural construction, medicinec no published use for the wood edible fruit forrage, edible fruit, lumber no published use for the woodc tool handles tool handles no published use for the woodc Sapotaceae edible fruit latex, edible fruit, lumberc Sapotaceae edible fruit, lumberc rural construction, railroad ties.
Sapotaceae Sapotaceae
Tadzi Laurelillo Guayabillo Boob Eculub
a
From Chavelas, 1976. From Pennington and SarukhaÂn, 1968. c Fire wood also should be a possible use. Based on personal communications with local people. b
down. The study plots were remeasured every year, and we were very impressed by the sprouting response of many of these trees. Thus, in addition to the measurements for the main study, we decided to observe a sample of the stumps to evaluate the sprouting response of different species. Such information should be very useful to forest managers. The potential use of some of the sprouting species for ®rewood production, construction materials, medicinal properties or to obtain other products important to the forest inhabitants (Table 1) encouraged us to make these observations. This paper presents the results of the sprouting response of 17 tree species of the region 3 years after they were cut. 2. Study area The state of Quintana Roo is located along the eastern portion of the peninsula of Yucatan (southeastern part of Mexico) (Negreros-Castillo and Mize, 1993). The peninsula projects northward into the gulf of Mexico as a great limestone platform joined at its base to the Sierras of northern Central America. The
predominant types of soil present are Rendolls (USA Soil Taxonomy) or Rendzinas (former USA classi®cation) (GonzaÂlez, 1941; Bridges, 1970; Foth and Nschafer, 1980), or Livisols/Cambisols (FAO± UNESCO, 1988) The climate coded as Aw, is described as warm submoist with a dry period. The annual rainfall is between 1000 and 1200 mm, distributed unevenly, with most rainfall in the period July±December. The annual temperature mean is 268C with a minimum of 88C (Tamayo, 1981). Swietenia macrophylla (mahogany) ®nds in this type of forest the best microenvironmental conditions for its maximum growth (Lamb, 1966). The two most abundant species are Manilkara zapota (chicle tree) and Brosimum alicastrum (super multipurpose tree). The vegetation in this region has been classi®ed as the tropical dry forest formation (Holdridge, 1947), `selvas subperennifolias' (Pennington and SarukhaÂn, 1968) or tropical semi-evergreen forest (Rzedowski and Rzedowski, 1989). More detailed information about the vegetation of Quintana Roo is found in the Carnegie Institution of Washington (1936, 1940)), Sousa and Cabrera (1983), and Rzedowski and Rzedowski (1989).
P. Negreros-Castillo, R.B. Hall / Forest Ecology and Management 126 (2000) 399±403
401
commercial uses at this time, the uses listed focus on what the local inhabitants do with the species.
3. Methods Five 0.5 ha plots were established to carry out an overstory removal/regeneration study (Negreros-Castillo and Mize, 1993). In each plot, different percentages of trees were cut down to produce different levels of residual basal area (100, 92, 72, 65 and 45%). Stump height was not directly controlled, but was reasonably uniform at about 45 cm. Previous to being cut, all the trees in the ®ve plots were numbered. Those numbers were used to randomly pick 128 stumps to be measured in this study. Three years after felling, the stump diameters, the number of sprouts per stump and their height were measured. To analyze data for trends in stump sprouting behavior, the data were sorted by species and stump diameter. Then within species averages were calculated for number of sprouts and average sprout height for both stump sizes below and above the median diameter for each species. Seventeen tree species were included, the number of individuals per species varied. The names of the tree species that were analyzed and their uses are listed in Table 1. Because most of the species do not have
4. Results and discussion Table 2 shows the number of stumps measured, maximum and minimum stump diameter, average sprout number, and average sprout height for each species. For 12 of the 17 species, the average number of sprouts was greater for stumps larger than the median size, while sprout height growth tended to show no consistent trend by stump size. If it is assumed that small trees are young trees, an opposite response in sprout production is usually expected, the younger the tree, the greater the sprout production should be (Johnson, 1977; Khan and Tripathi, 1986a, b; Putz and Brokaw, 1989; Thompson et al., 1998). Manilkara zapota l. L. (chicozapote) and Nectandra coriaceae Blake (laurelillo) did not show any diameter related responses, while Brosimum alicastrum (ramoÂn) and Croton ree¯exifolius (perez cutz) showed a small reduction in the average number of sprouts as diameter
Table 2 Stump sprouting results 3 years after an overstory removal cut Local name
Ramon blanco Caimitillo Boob Boobchich Perez Cutz Silil Yaiti Tadzi Elemuy Chicozapote Chechen Laurelillo Kanixte Zapotillo Copal Blanco Guyabillo Eculu Total
No. of stumps measured 5 5 9 4 7 5 8 8 5 9 5 7 8 27 7 6 5 128
Stump diameter (cm) Min
Max
8 9 3 11 9 11 3 3 6 3 25 3 11 3 7 4 7
10 12 30 30 22 15 19 5 16 5 35 38 55 41 15 48 22
Average No. of sprouts on small/large stumps
Average height (m) of sprouts on small/large stumps
1.7/1.5 4.0/4.7 3.6/4.8 9.0/16.5 2.8/2.5 2.0/2.3 3.9/7.0 1.3/0.8 1.7/3.0 2.8/2.8 2.7/3.3 3.0/3.0 4.3/6.0 2.3/2.9 3.0/3.5 4.3/6.0 4.3/8.0
0.8/0.8 4.3/4.0 4.3/5.7 5.0/4.8 3.5/4.5 4.5/4.3 3.2/4.7 2.5/1.4 1.7/2.0 1.2/1.2 1.1/1.9 2.8/2.4 0.8/1.5 1.7/1.4 3.0/3.5 0.8/1.5 2.3/2.4
The two numbers given for average number of sprouts and average sprout height represent the average sprout characteristics for stumps below/stumps above the median stump diameter for each species.
402
P. Negreros-Castillo, R.B. Hall / Forest Ecology and Management 126 (2000) 399±403
increased. Tree ages are unknown, and because these species are not commercially valuable, very little information exits about them that would help to explain the results. One possible explanation is that stump diameter was positively correlated with a trees' position in the overstory and therefore access to light, level of stored carbohydrates at the time of the harvest, and resulting vigor in sprout production and initial growth. The results show, however, that all 17 of the species have the ability to produce sprouts. This preliminary study shows the potential for coppice management of these tropical species. One possibility would be to use these species in short rotation plantations to satisfy some of the inhabitant's immediate needs, mainly ®rewood, forage supplies, and poles for the construction of their houses. These plantations should be located close to the towns to facilitate caring for the trees and collecting the products. Other possibilities to use this stump sprouting ability would be to establish research on the `coppice-with-standards' method of forest management (Matthews, 1989; Smith et al., 1997), or to rapidly establish agroforestry systems by retaining strips of native trees when an area is cleared for farming. These trees can then be managed, using coppicing systems, for ®rewood, constructions materials or for even food and medicines. 5. Conclusions This information may not be needed immediately, but it has potential to be used in the near future. The sprouting capability of tropical tree species in this geographical region has potential to be utilized as a tool for production of non timber products. Some of the needs of the local inhabitants of tropical regions could be satis®ed by using the capability of these tree species to produce sprouts. Acknowledgements Paper No. J-15366 of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, IA, USA; Project 2210. This research was completed as part of a Ph.D. Dissertation project of the senior author
at Iowa State University. The study was carried out with the ®nancial and logistical support of Mexico's National Institute for Research in Forestry, Agriculture, and Animal Husbandry (INIFAP), through its forest research station `San. Felipe Bacalar' in Quintana Roo. Some equipment and materials were supplied by the Forestry Department of Iowa State University. Special Thanks to Javier Chavelas-Polito, Chief of the Research Station, for his support and encouragement. References Bridges, E.M., 1970. World Soils. University Press, Cambridge, 128 pp. Carnegie Institution of Washington., 1936. Botany of the Maya Area. Miscellaneous Papers (I-XIII), Publication No. 461. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington D.C., WA, 328 pp. Carnegie Institution of Washington., 1940. Botany of the Maya Area. Miscellaneous Papers (XIV±XXI), Publication No. 522. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington D.C., WA, pp. 474. Chavelas, P.J., 1976. El campo Experimental Forestal `San. Felipe Bacalar'. Ciencia Forestal. 1(3), 65±74. FAO±UNESCO., 1988. Soil Map of the World. Revised Legend. World Soil Resources Report 60. Rome, Italy, 119 pp. Foth, H., Nschafer, J., 1980. Soil Geography and Land Use. Wiley, New York, 484 pp. GonzaÂlez, G.A., 1941. IntroduccioÂn al Estudio de los Suelos. Banco Nacional de CroÂdito AgrõÂcola, Mexico, 484 pp. Holdridge, L.R., 1947. Determination of world plant formations from simple climatic data. Science 105(2727), 367±368. Johnson, P.S., 1977. Predicting oak stump sprouting and sprout development in the Missouri Ozarks. USDA For. Serv. Res. Pap. NC-149. North Cent. For. Exp. Stn., St. Paul, MN, USA, 11 pp. Khan, M.L., Tripathi, R.S., 1986a. Tree regeneration in a disturbed sub-tropical wet hill forest of north-east India: effect of stump diameter and height on sprouting of four tree species. For. Ecol. Manage. 17, 199±209. Khan, M.L., Tripathi, R.S., 1986b. Regeneration and survival of tree seedlings and sprouts in tropical deciduous and subtropical forests of Meghalaya, India. For. Ecol. Manage. 14, 293±304. Lamb, F.B., 1966. Mahogany of Tropical America: Its Ecology and Management. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 220 pp. Matthews, J.D., 1989. Silvicultural Systems. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 284 pp. Negreros-Castillo, P., Mize, C.W., 1993. Effects of partial overstory removal on the natural regeneration of a tropical forest in Quintana Roo. Mexico For. Ecol. Manage. 58, 259±272. Pennington, T.D., SarukhaÂn, J., 1968. Arboles Tropicales de Mexico. INIFAP/FAO, Mexico City, 413 pp.
P. Negreros-Castillo, R.B. Hall / Forest Ecology and Management 126 (2000) 399±403 Putz, F.E., Brokaw, N., 1989. Sprouting of broken trees on Barro Colorado Island. Panama. Ecol. 70(2), 508±512. Rzedowski, J., Rzedowski, G.C., 1989. Transisthmic Mexico (Campeche, Chiapas, Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Yucatan). In: Campbell, D.G., Hammond, H.D. (Eds.), Floristic Inventory of Tropical Countries. The New York Botanical Garden, New York, pp. 270±280. Smith, D.M., Larson, B.C., Kelty, M.J., Ashton, P.M.S., 1997. The Practice of Silviculture: Applied Forest Ecology, 9th edn. Wiley, New York. Sousa, S.M., Cabrera, C.E.F., 1983. Flora de Quintana Roo: Listados Florfsticos de Mexico. Instituto de Biologia, UNAM, Mexico City, 100 pp.
403
Tamayo, J.L., 1981. Geografia Moderna de Mexico. Editorial Trillas, Mexico City, 400 pp. Thompson, J., Proctor, J., Scott, D.A., Fraser, P.J., Marrs, R.H., Miller, R.P., Viana, V., 1998. Rain forest on Maraca Island, Roraima, Brazil: artificial gaps and plant response to them. For. Ecol. Manage. 102, 305±321. Tracey, J.G., 1983. The development of synecological method for classification of rain forest and implications for their management. In: Shepherd, K.R., Ritcher, N.V. (Eds.), Managing the Tropical Forest. The Australian National University, pp. 229± 242.
Sprouting capability of 17 tropical tree species after overstory removal in Quintana Roo, Mexico Patricia Negreros-Castillo, Richard B. Hall* Department of Forestry, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 50011, USA Accepted 22 February 1999
Abstract While carrying out an overstory removal/natural regeneration study, the number of sprouts from the trees that were cut down were recorded. Seventeen species with average diameters from 9 to 36 cm were studied. The number of sprouts varied from 1 to 6, and sprout heights from 1.0 m to 5 m, 3 years after the original trees were cut. Overall, the number of sprouts and the height of the sprouts increased as the parent tree diameter increased. This information can be very useful in managing the forest for products other than timber. Firewood, medicinal plants, construction materials, edible fruits, and forages are among the different uses of the observed species. Speci®c stands might be coppiced to satisfy some of the most immediate needs of the region's inhabitants. # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Tropical forests; Tree sprouting; Coppice management; Quintana Roo; Mexico
1. Introduction Tropical forests are of great value to tropical inhabitants in particular, and in general to the world society. The role of these forests are currently better known and understood than are the management techniques needed to sustain them. Tropical forests are habitat for the highest diversity of plants and animals in the world, carbon sinks, and sources of valuable timber, resins and latex, medicine materials, etc. (Tracey, 1983). Although, the study of tropical forests has advanced in recent years, not enough is *Corresponding author. Tel.: +1-515-294-1453; fax: +1-515294-2995. E-mail address: [email protected] (D.A. Yaussy).
known about tropical forests to foster sustainable management. Thus, there are still many questions to investigate. Because research funding is often scarce, it is very useful, when possible, to gather additional ®eld information while carrying out studies that have other primary objectives. Sprouts from stumps are an important element for the natural vegetative regeneration of tropical and temperate forests (Johnson, 1977; Khan and Tripathi, 1986a, b; Putz and Brokaw, 1989; Thompson et al., 1998). However, very little is known about the sprouting capability of tropical forest species in many parts of the world. In an overstory removal/natural regeneration study in Quintana Roo (Negreros-Castillo and Mize, 1993), many trees of a variety of species (Table 1) were cut
0378-1127/00/$ ± see front matter # 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. PII: S 0 3 7 8 - 1 1 2 7 ( 9 9 ) 0 0 1 0 9 - 7
400
P. Negreros-Castillo, R.B. Hall / Forest Ecology and Management 126 (2000) 399±403
Table 1 List of tree species studied with Latin names and most important uses Family
Scientific Namea
Local name
Usesb
Anacardiaceae Annonaceae Burceraceae Ebenaceae Euphorbiaceae Euphorbiaceae Hyppocrataceae Lauraceae Moraceae Myrtaceae Polygonaceae Polygonaceae Sapindaceae
Metopium brownei Jacq. Urban. Malmea depressa (Baillon) R.E.F. Protium copal Engl. Diospyros verae-crucis Standl. Croton reeflexiofolius H.B.K. Gymnanthes Lucida Sw. Yaiti Hippocratea celastroides B.B.K. Nectandra coriaceae (Blake). C.K. Brosimun alicastrum Sw. Ramon blanco Psidium sartorianum Berg. Coccoloba sp Coccoloba spicata Lundell. Boobchich Talisia floresii Standl.
Chechen Elemuy Copal Blanco Silil Perez Cutz
Chrysophyllum mexicanum Brand. Manilkara zapota l. (L.) V. Royen Pouteria campechiana H.B.K. Pouteria unilocularis (Donn. and S.M.)
Caimitillo Chicozapote Kanixte Zapotillo
lumber, turning stock hatchet handlesc tool handle, posts no published use for the wood rural construction, medicinec rural construction, medicinec no published use for the wood edible fruit forrage, edible fruit, lumber no published use for the woodc tool handles tool handles no published use for the woodc Sapotaceae edible fruit latex, edible fruit, lumberc Sapotaceae edible fruit, lumberc rural construction, railroad ties.
Sapotaceae Sapotaceae
Tadzi Laurelillo Guayabillo Boob Eculub
a
From Chavelas, 1976. From Pennington and SarukhaÂn, 1968. c Fire wood also should be a possible use. Based on personal communications with local people. b
down. The study plots were remeasured every year, and we were very impressed by the sprouting response of many of these trees. Thus, in addition to the measurements for the main study, we decided to observe a sample of the stumps to evaluate the sprouting response of different species. Such information should be very useful to forest managers. The potential use of some of the sprouting species for ®rewood production, construction materials, medicinal properties or to obtain other products important to the forest inhabitants (Table 1) encouraged us to make these observations. This paper presents the results of the sprouting response of 17 tree species of the region 3 years after they were cut. 2. Study area The state of Quintana Roo is located along the eastern portion of the peninsula of Yucatan (southeastern part of Mexico) (Negreros-Castillo and Mize, 1993). The peninsula projects northward into the gulf of Mexico as a great limestone platform joined at its base to the Sierras of northern Central America. The
predominant types of soil present are Rendolls (USA Soil Taxonomy) or Rendzinas (former USA classi®cation) (GonzaÂlez, 1941; Bridges, 1970; Foth and Nschafer, 1980), or Livisols/Cambisols (FAO± UNESCO, 1988) The climate coded as Aw, is described as warm submoist with a dry period. The annual rainfall is between 1000 and 1200 mm, distributed unevenly, with most rainfall in the period July±December. The annual temperature mean is 268C with a minimum of 88C (Tamayo, 1981). Swietenia macrophylla (mahogany) ®nds in this type of forest the best microenvironmental conditions for its maximum growth (Lamb, 1966). The two most abundant species are Manilkara zapota (chicle tree) and Brosimum alicastrum (super multipurpose tree). The vegetation in this region has been classi®ed as the tropical dry forest formation (Holdridge, 1947), `selvas subperennifolias' (Pennington and SarukhaÂn, 1968) or tropical semi-evergreen forest (Rzedowski and Rzedowski, 1989). More detailed information about the vegetation of Quintana Roo is found in the Carnegie Institution of Washington (1936, 1940)), Sousa and Cabrera (1983), and Rzedowski and Rzedowski (1989).
P. Negreros-Castillo, R.B. Hall / Forest Ecology and Management 126 (2000) 399±403
401
commercial uses at this time, the uses listed focus on what the local inhabitants do with the species.
3. Methods Five 0.5 ha plots were established to carry out an overstory removal/regeneration study (Negreros-Castillo and Mize, 1993). In each plot, different percentages of trees were cut down to produce different levels of residual basal area (100, 92, 72, 65 and 45%). Stump height was not directly controlled, but was reasonably uniform at about 45 cm. Previous to being cut, all the trees in the ®ve plots were numbered. Those numbers were used to randomly pick 128 stumps to be measured in this study. Three years after felling, the stump diameters, the number of sprouts per stump and their height were measured. To analyze data for trends in stump sprouting behavior, the data were sorted by species and stump diameter. Then within species averages were calculated for number of sprouts and average sprout height for both stump sizes below and above the median diameter for each species. Seventeen tree species were included, the number of individuals per species varied. The names of the tree species that were analyzed and their uses are listed in Table 1. Because most of the species do not have
4. Results and discussion Table 2 shows the number of stumps measured, maximum and minimum stump diameter, average sprout number, and average sprout height for each species. For 12 of the 17 species, the average number of sprouts was greater for stumps larger than the median size, while sprout height growth tended to show no consistent trend by stump size. If it is assumed that small trees are young trees, an opposite response in sprout production is usually expected, the younger the tree, the greater the sprout production should be (Johnson, 1977; Khan and Tripathi, 1986a, b; Putz and Brokaw, 1989; Thompson et al., 1998). Manilkara zapota l. L. (chicozapote) and Nectandra coriaceae Blake (laurelillo) did not show any diameter related responses, while Brosimum alicastrum (ramoÂn) and Croton ree¯exifolius (perez cutz) showed a small reduction in the average number of sprouts as diameter
Table 2 Stump sprouting results 3 years after an overstory removal cut Local name
Ramon blanco Caimitillo Boob Boobchich Perez Cutz Silil Yaiti Tadzi Elemuy Chicozapote Chechen Laurelillo Kanixte Zapotillo Copal Blanco Guyabillo Eculu Total
No. of stumps measured 5 5 9 4 7 5 8 8 5 9 5 7 8 27 7 6 5 128
Stump diameter (cm) Min
Max
8 9 3 11 9 11 3 3 6 3 25 3 11 3 7 4 7
10 12 30 30 22 15 19 5 16 5 35 38 55 41 15 48 22
Average No. of sprouts on small/large stumps
Average height (m) of sprouts on small/large stumps
1.7/1.5 4.0/4.7 3.6/4.8 9.0/16.5 2.8/2.5 2.0/2.3 3.9/7.0 1.3/0.8 1.7/3.0 2.8/2.8 2.7/3.3 3.0/3.0 4.3/6.0 2.3/2.9 3.0/3.5 4.3/6.0 4.3/8.0
0.8/0.8 4.3/4.0 4.3/5.7 5.0/4.8 3.5/4.5 4.5/4.3 3.2/4.7 2.5/1.4 1.7/2.0 1.2/1.2 1.1/1.9 2.8/2.4 0.8/1.5 1.7/1.4 3.0/3.5 0.8/1.5 2.3/2.4
The two numbers given for average number of sprouts and average sprout height represent the average sprout characteristics for stumps below/stumps above the median stump diameter for each species.
402
P. Negreros-Castillo, R.B. Hall / Forest Ecology and Management 126 (2000) 399±403
increased. Tree ages are unknown, and because these species are not commercially valuable, very little information exits about them that would help to explain the results. One possible explanation is that stump diameter was positively correlated with a trees' position in the overstory and therefore access to light, level of stored carbohydrates at the time of the harvest, and resulting vigor in sprout production and initial growth. The results show, however, that all 17 of the species have the ability to produce sprouts. This preliminary study shows the potential for coppice management of these tropical species. One possibility would be to use these species in short rotation plantations to satisfy some of the inhabitant's immediate needs, mainly ®rewood, forage supplies, and poles for the construction of their houses. These plantations should be located close to the towns to facilitate caring for the trees and collecting the products. Other possibilities to use this stump sprouting ability would be to establish research on the `coppice-with-standards' method of forest management (Matthews, 1989; Smith et al., 1997), or to rapidly establish agroforestry systems by retaining strips of native trees when an area is cleared for farming. These trees can then be managed, using coppicing systems, for ®rewood, constructions materials or for even food and medicines. 5. Conclusions This information may not be needed immediately, but it has potential to be used in the near future. The sprouting capability of tropical tree species in this geographical region has potential to be utilized as a tool for production of non timber products. Some of the needs of the local inhabitants of tropical regions could be satis®ed by using the capability of these tree species to produce sprouts. Acknowledgements Paper No. J-15366 of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, IA, USA; Project 2210. This research was completed as part of a Ph.D. Dissertation project of the senior author
at Iowa State University. The study was carried out with the ®nancial and logistical support of Mexico's National Institute for Research in Forestry, Agriculture, and Animal Husbandry (INIFAP), through its forest research station `San. Felipe Bacalar' in Quintana Roo. Some equipment and materials were supplied by the Forestry Department of Iowa State University. Special Thanks to Javier Chavelas-Polito, Chief of the Research Station, for his support and encouragement. References Bridges, E.M., 1970. World Soils. University Press, Cambridge, 128 pp. Carnegie Institution of Washington., 1936. Botany of the Maya Area. Miscellaneous Papers (I-XIII), Publication No. 461. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington D.C., WA, 328 pp. Carnegie Institution of Washington., 1940. Botany of the Maya Area. Miscellaneous Papers (XIV±XXI), Publication No. 522. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington D.C., WA, pp. 474. Chavelas, P.J., 1976. El campo Experimental Forestal `San. Felipe Bacalar'. Ciencia Forestal. 1(3), 65±74. FAO±UNESCO., 1988. Soil Map of the World. Revised Legend. World Soil Resources Report 60. Rome, Italy, 119 pp. Foth, H., Nschafer, J., 1980. Soil Geography and Land Use. Wiley, New York, 484 pp. GonzaÂlez, G.A., 1941. IntroduccioÂn al Estudio de los Suelos. Banco Nacional de CroÂdito AgrõÂcola, Mexico, 484 pp. Holdridge, L.R., 1947. Determination of world plant formations from simple climatic data. Science 105(2727), 367±368. Johnson, P.S., 1977. Predicting oak stump sprouting and sprout development in the Missouri Ozarks. USDA For. Serv. Res. Pap. NC-149. North Cent. For. Exp. Stn., St. Paul, MN, USA, 11 pp. Khan, M.L., Tripathi, R.S., 1986a. Tree regeneration in a disturbed sub-tropical wet hill forest of north-east India: effect of stump diameter and height on sprouting of four tree species. For. Ecol. Manage. 17, 199±209. Khan, M.L., Tripathi, R.S., 1986b. Regeneration and survival of tree seedlings and sprouts in tropical deciduous and subtropical forests of Meghalaya, India. For. Ecol. Manage. 14, 293±304. Lamb, F.B., 1966. Mahogany of Tropical America: Its Ecology and Management. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 220 pp. Matthews, J.D., 1989. Silvicultural Systems. Clarendon Press, Oxford, 284 pp. Negreros-Castillo, P., Mize, C.W., 1993. Effects of partial overstory removal on the natural regeneration of a tropical forest in Quintana Roo. Mexico For. Ecol. Manage. 58, 259±272. Pennington, T.D., SarukhaÂn, J., 1968. Arboles Tropicales de Mexico. INIFAP/FAO, Mexico City, 413 pp.
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